Greg Snow - Southwest Florida Real Estate Expert provides real estate services to Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Sanibel and Captiva Islands

Reading our slimmed down Sunday's News-Press, www.news-press.com, a feeling of resigned optimism caressed my visage as we work our way to high season here in Lee County, Florida. Even though the terrible tradgedy in Haiti is still our lead story as we head for week two coverage, there were certain other various items that lead me to wonder where we will be soon. If one survey's the top ten homes sold last week, topped by two sales on Sanibel Island of over one million dollars, then a fair point would be that we are still selling real estate. Another item indicated mortgage interest rates were still under 5% for 30 year fixed (although not quite as low as last week) which means cheap borrowing costs (if a bank will lend it ). Does the jobless rate still stand in our local recovery. Hovering near 14% non seasonal here is very high. Should Fort Myers Beach spend millions on beach re-nourishment? I think so if they want to keep the"family" environment and sun and sea seekers. I think the biggest question for me is how will we receive the drama "Spring Awakening" that opens Tuesday at Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall. Will it be a success? Will the brief nudity and some profanity in the songs bring down the house? Life is really tough for teens. i know..my Jordan just turned sixteen and she looks at me sometimes like "WHY................." :)

Our Lee County marketplace had a tremendous volume of real estate sales in 2009. Nearly 17,000 single family residences sold in 2009, up over 90% from 2008. Our December 1340 sales were over 48% bank owned, 18% short sales, and the remaining 33% were traditional sales. Median sales price in December was almost $90,000, which is down almost 8% from December 2008. These numbers are heavily influenced by the bank owned properties.

Trying to find a home for a customer or client is very difficult when faced with competeing offers, uninterested or overwhelmed bank asset amnagers, virtual listing brokers, and if your indidvidual needs financing, most of the qualifying and approval for funds needs to be finished.  With the tax-crdit deadline rapidly approaching (4/30/10), www.irs.gov/recovery, the average time to get a home loan processed has increased from as little as 30 days to about eight weeks, and that is assuming no real problems with appraisals, inspections, and unknowns. Oue Lee County, Florida marketplace has seen some tremendous real estate deals in the past 16 months and opportunites still present themselves. One needs to be ready to move quickly with quality representation to obtain the American dream of owning property in southwest Florida.

Everywhere one looks in this poor island nation, there is despair. devastation, death, and shock from events 60 hours earlier. Our State Department, www.state.gov, estimates there are about 45,000 Americans in Haiti. Many, if not most are Haitian-American who have returned to their homeland. However, many an American has been drawn to this poor island (shared with the Dominican Republic), to help with disasters (usually violent storms), poverty and political upheval. Here, in Lee County, Florida, we have a large, and growing population of Haitians, that have sought our area out for better quality of life and our "American dream" hope.

Early reports show estimates of the dead at anything from thousands to hundreds of thousands, and with communications limited to the internet and social networking sites like Facebook, www.facebook.com, and Twitter, www.twitter.com, scarce medical supplies, limited sanitary food and water, haphazard shelters, and aftershocks, we may be many days and nights away from knowing any accurate death toll and any practical plan to begin to replace what little the people had before last Monday. If able, please offer any assistance you can to aid these unfortunate souls.

As if the recent cold wave wasn't enough of reminder of strange sensations, one purview of our local Multiple Listing Service on "what happended???" in 2009 creates more throbbing numbness. Using information from the http://www.swflrealtors.com, the numbers are startling to behold. There were 45 single family homes sold for less than $10,000 (the winner was 5324 Lee Street in Lehigh for $100)

Look at these bargains: 3230 single family houses under $50k, 6887 between $50k-$100k, 3993 from $100k-$200k, and only 415 sold for more than $500,000, of which 87 of theses sold for 2 commas. There were 6 condos that sold in excess of two commas (4 on Sanibel). Currently we have over 85 condos and 545 single family homes actively for sale at $one million or more here in Lee County, Fla.

Does anyone remember Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride"? www.steppenwolf.com 

After the long rift near the end, "..you don't know what we can find..." lends credence to our real estate market here in southwest Florida. There are still many good opportunites to find what you are looking for :)

Just a day left in the decade and hopefully many more on the horizon for Lee County, Florida, and the rest of us around the planet. These last 10 years may equal the 1960's in " SHIFTS HAPPENS" approaches we have undergone. If we start with JFK being president, trouble with Cuba, civil rights,  high profile assasinations, Vietnam, large rock concerts, baby boomers, getting to the moon, and winding up with Tricky Dick as not being a crook, that is tough to exceed. However, start with  George W.....Bush, still troulbe with Fidel, civil and gay rights, high profile deaths, more unpopular wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, large profitable rock concerts, generation x,y,z znd start the Roman numerals for the next one, going to Mars, and Bernie Madoff, well it may take alot of scorecards to determine who is really on first www.abbottandcostello.net

Enjoy your final day of the decade and may God keep his eyes on us all :)

"In 65, I was seventeen and running up one- o - one"  www.jacksonbrowne.com  and little did I realize a 1965 song by the Kinks, www.thekinks.org of " Who' be the next in line" was referencing things other than trysts. The good or bad thing about youth is , that ultimately one gets over it :). So, has this decade been the most trying, demanding, confusing and thought content provoking or is it door number 2 (any of the past ones we heard about or can remember) or door number 3, hence the next in line thinking??

Looking at the calendar, I can tell we are on the last days and nights of the first decade of our 21st century. My current thoughts are that time waits for no-one, where have you gone Joe Dimaggio, what's up pussycat, who are you, when I was seventeen, and why's up (Wise up would be better) :)

For all of you who find links to our past and present culture in these simpets, you most certainly have been round the block (or possibly gone round the bend). Living now in our paradise we call southwest Florida, and seeing balmy weather for December here, reflecting back to just what has occurred in the last 360 days and nights might give us all a real sense of what is real and what is memorex .

Who would have thought that running into a fire hydrant by your house would get you HOSED for a couple of hundred million dollars ? That  you would die before singing "Beat It" a few times for a couple of million dollars? That being the leader of the free world means moving a couple of Billion dollars around to bring the USA out of a dive that was so close for us going out. As we wait for the final days and nights to bring in 2010, may we all have the bravado to be better people, spouses, parents, and willing participants in our world......Have a Happy Holiday :)

As we approach our Thanksgiving Day here in Lee County, Florida, it sure seems like we have been here, done that, bought the T-shirt, sold it at a profit, and looking to discover if the world is really round and round. This probably sounds like a script from Abbot & Costello or Laugh-In. I always chuckle when I see or hear "Who's on First..www.abbottandcostello.net, maybe a tad retro for some of the youth of today, but possibly more compelling and insightful than they would ever suspect.

A brief view of my projected week coming to fruition..:) There is a superb possibility of NOT being in any brick and mortar retail, wholesale, or other shopping venue on Black Friday. Waiting for an opportunity to do the "S" word the day after Thanksgiving has evaded my world and I need to keep the streak intact. I believe Al Gore discovered a computer with Internet (lol) and one could go to web sites and pages and purchase goods. Issue solved. Probably forced to watch Detroit Lions and my Bete Noire, Dallas Cow (fill in the blank).. :) Of course, the real value still is family and friends, which I know I will never have enough. Love to all, and next holiday..  to all a GOOD NIGHT!!!!!!

This 10 year old home in a gated community was a specially designed home by Bud Lawrence. Style exudes everywhere from the Italian tile and colorful stained glass windows to hanging tapestry and custom stamped driveway. The Bar-B-Que imported from Germany weighs almost one ton and adorns your lakeview, with large Carp and turtles, besides the pool and spa (new heaters) The Wolf gas stove is worthy of any local restaurant as is the commerical refrigerator and adjacent stand alone ice-maker. Enjoy your wine cooler as you relax in your man or women “cave “ in  the insulated 3 car garage which easily converts back if desired. The living room is extra comfortable, with many additional electrical outlets in the floor, and tall walnut french doors leading out into the pool/spa area. Two inches of polyurethane seal solidify the foundation, trusses, and roof, and reduce the A/C costs in your tropical paradise here in Southwest Florida. Should you fall hopelessly in love with the décor and furnishings, no worries, we’ll see that they convey with the home.

Hello, how are you doing? I just heard a tremendous fact about where I was exactly 25 years ago today :). I was in the old Orange Bowl, on a wet and rainy Friday , the day after Thanksgiving, and witnessed one of the all time best college football games. Late in the hotly contested game between Boston College and the U of Miami, Doug Flutie www.dougflutie2.com , rolled toward me, waved, and then turned and threw a game winning 48 yard touchdown pass. One of those Kodak moments.

Where are we today???? Sunday's News-Press, www.news-press.com ran a story about Thomas Alva Edison, our all time most influential citizen, and his value to putting Fort Myers and Lee County on many person's radar.  Front page story was to drill or Not to drill in our Gulf of Mexico, and how close is too close? Is the pursuit of energy for the U.S. worth a possible MAJOR problem for our area and the whole state of Florida. Do we really want to risk a $60 Billion dollar tourist industry over the possibility of finding oil and or natural gas in the Gulf? Looks like we be coming full circle from early energy discovery to modern day materials.